Seems it was a day of near misses. In northern Germany a small plane, a Piper PA-28-181 Archer II to be specific, approached the runway to land on the airstrip at Dune, a small island off Heligoland that caters to tourists.

The pilot descended towards the airstrip, but dropped dangerously close to the beach’s white sands adjacent to the landing strip – and also much too close to a sunbather lying face down just below the plane’s landing path.

The Piper’s pilot had miscalculated his altitude narrowly avoiding striking the sunbather by just inches.

“I was watching the planes come into land,” said Rainer Schmidt, 52, who shot the video. “I had seen five planes land before this one came in. I instantly realized that this one was coming in to land far too low.

“The others were at least six meters high. It was so close to the man on the beach. The man was very lucky.”

Uwe Kaiser, another sunbather, said, “The man who was almost hit was lying down and he turned over to look after seeing the plane coming and then instantly flung himself down in the sand as it crossed over him. It really was a close shave.”

The 52 year old pilot, Juergen Drucker, admitted misjudging his approach to the runway, but said that he had not seen the man because he was lying down.

“It was me that was flying and I am really sorry. I have to say, as the pictures show, that it wasn’t one of my greatest achievements in the cockpit.”

After the dramatic landing, Drucker was able to patch up his plane and fly home that same evening.

The sunbather, perhaps realizing there are safer places to sunbathe (go figure!), was seen standing up and simply walking off.

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Hot Damme! Look what 53-year-old Jean-Claude Van Damme can do! That is Jean-Claude in the pic above with his legs spread out between two semi-trailer trucks. Performing this “epic split” is a trick Jean-Claude often does in his movies, but generally he does it at ground level. The stunt takes on a much more impressive perspective when performed between the side mirrors of two semis.

Van Damme’s movies are generally not much more than martial arts flicks, which is fine if you like fight films. But Jean-Claude cleverly garners some impressive publicity with this stunt, making me wonder if I should reconsider checking out Mr “Muscles from Brussels” next flick.

Also impressive in the video is the ability of the semi drivers to maintain the necessary distance between the two trucks while driving backward in the stunt. Anyone who has ever driven a truck knows that driving any truck backward like this is no small feat, let alone doing it with an 18 wheeler.

If I were in the market to buy a semi, Volvo would certainly be tops on my list after seeing this stunt, which is undoubtedly just what Volvo wanted when they set up the video.

Remember Pamela Anderson, the gorgeous blonde bombshell who starred as a hot lifeguard in the TV series Baywatch. The former Playboy Playmate of the year is now 46 years old and still riles male hormones into a-churning overtime.

Lovely Pamela recently starred in a TV commercial for crazydomains.com.au in which she displays her still remarkable body clad in tattoos, a bikini and cream cascading down her incredibly supple body parts.

The United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has dutifully banned the commercial from Britain’s airwaves claiming the ad contains what it calls offensive content.

“…we considered the ad was likely to cause serious offence to some viewers on the basis that it was sexist and degrading to women,” the ASA ruled.

Naturally, Pamela and her publicist must now be reveling in the subsequent publicity that the ban has created. The ASA has turned an innocuous commercial that would have quickly faded away into a gold mine for Pamela and crazydomains.com.au.

Because the vid is hosted by YouTube, we apologize for any advertising you may be forced to watch in order to view the video:

The old Hollywood axiom, “any publicity is good publicity” obviously still holds true.

After living my entire life in Minnesota, which is one of the coldest states in the US, I encountered a winter phenomenon I had never even heard of, let alone witnessed. It’s called “ice chandeliering,” which is the strange effect created when strong winds push a melting layer of ice across the surface of a lake into the opposite shoreline with tremendous force.

When the ice hits the shore it has no where to go, so the extreme force rapidly shears the ice off into thousands of fine needles. It is a phenomenon few people will ever witness because of the rare circumstances that are necessary to create the effect.

This ridiculously cute pic of Joey Powling Jr has gone viral, and you can understand why. Poor little Joey! I have the same scar from heart surgery so I can empathize with lil’ Joe. Hope he’s not in too much pain.

A Vancouver, Canada, youth hockey coach was caught on video tripping an opposing player while in the post-game handshake line. Martin Tremblay is the coach in question who is accused of allegedly tripping the 13-year-old player.

The second player who also hit the ice after the tripping incident broke his wrist in the fall.

Tremblay, who has been arrested and charged with two counts of assault, stated through his attorney, Bob Bellows, that he would be writing a letter of apology. But that doesn’t mean Tremblay will be pleading guilty said Bellows.

“It’s not quite as simple as it appears on the face of it,” Bellows said. “There’s a lot more to be unveiled.”

Elizabeth Pappas, the mother of the boy who was tripped, was confused when Bellows said the case wasn’t simple.

“Why isn’t it that simple? It was caught on camera,” she said. “It’s right there, and it’s wrong.”

“What made him decide this?…does he really truly mean it? Or did his lawyer suggest this? Sometimes people apologize without meaning it.”

This coach reminds me of didiot bullies in high school who make the same bonehead move that Coach Tremblay is accused of doing. At least those high school bullies have immaturity as an excuse. Wonder what Tremblay’s excuse is.

The Frozen Planet series on the Discovery channel has posted the above trailer on its web site, showing how frozen salty sea water, or brine, will freeze ocean water on contact forming an underwater “brinicle” or brine icicle. The brinicle will freeze any sea creature in its path instantly, which is why it’s called the icy finger of death.

Icy Finger of Death

It’s amazing that ice can form deep underwater like that.

The second video, which is also from Frozen Planet, shows killer whales coordinating a group attack while hunting seals up in the Arctic. The whales swim in unison causing waves that knock a seal off of the ice floe it is desperately clinging to for life.

In an effort to induce more girls to consider careers in science, the European Commission (EC) produced a slick minute long video that turned out to be so sexist that it caused an uproar. The vid reeks of stiletto high heels and mini skirts and has been thoroughly panned by virtually everyone who sees it.

The EC promptly pulled the video, but defended itself saying that the video tried to “speak their language to get their attention,” referring to young girls. The intent was to produce a video that is “fun, catchy” and would strike a chord with young girls.

The vid, which is entitled “Science: It’s A Girl Thing!,” makes many women who are already employed in the sciences feel insulted by the video’s “sexist” tone and do not think it is “fun” or “catchy” in any way.

In NewStatesman Martha Gill wrote “This kind of campaign insults women who are interested in science already and can more than hold their own with the boys.”

Although the video is already off the market, the EC promises more vids in a similar vein. “We want to overturn clichés and show women and girls, and boys too, that science is not about old men in white coats,” said Geoghegan-Quinn, European Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner speaking at the European Parliament in Brussels.

She said that the “Science, it’s a girl thing!” video is a teaser for a campaign to get more girls into science, and that the campaign will cover 27 EU member states over the next three years.

Quinn further said, “We’re trying to overcome stereotypes. Yet we’re targeting a whole gender – women in general. We need to find a way to appeal to the whole of womenkind. Yet we don’t want to use stereotypes. Yet we need to appeal to a whole gender. Yet we don’t want to use stereotypes.”

Assuming that is true, it is difficult to understand why the EC came up with this video, because everything in it is stereotypical.

OMG!…This action packed video shows a car smashing into a Publix grocery store and mowing down five adults and a baby carriage in the process.

Most of the action takes place within the first six seconds of the vid. About 50-60 seconds into the video you will be able to see the car cruising through the store still taking out store displays along the way. At 1:45 into the video several shoppers and store employees lift up one side of the car to free an 83-year-old man who was pinned under the vehicle.

Although you cannot see the details because everything happens so quickly, this video depicts a violent scene of five luckless victims and a baby carriage being wiped out by the speeding auto, which was traveling about 50 miles per hour according to witnesses. Why would anyone be driving 50 mph in the parking lot of a Publix grocery store?

Do not watch this video if you are squeamish.

Ten people including a baby in the baby carriage were injured during the accident which occurred Saturday, April 14th, in the central Florida town of Palm Coast.

The driver, 76-year-old Thelma Wagenhoffer, was charged with careless driving after she drove her 2004 Toyota Camry through the entrance of the Publix grocery store plowing her vehicle into a crowd of people and store displays.

Investigators determined that the car’s brakes were working properly, which may rule out mechanical problems as a cause. However, the car is a Toyota Camry, which has a history of autos accelerating by themselves. This video may prove that Toyotas still have problems with sticking gas pedals. Amazingly, it is difficult to believe that no one was killed in this incident, especially the baby in the baby carriage.

Neighbors claim that Wagenhoffer is normally a good driver, and that she would not answer her door to speak to reporters.

“Yeah, its bad…it’s a bad deal…its really got her tore up,” said one neighbor who declined being identified. “She never said a word. I don’t think she knows what happened to tell you the truth. I think she just had a bad experience, bad accident, bad day.”

In a freak accident near Saint Paul, MN, a runaway pickup truck clipped a utility pole and then crashed through the wall of Gordie’s Place, a local saloon, pinning patrons against the bar. The 51-year-old driver suffered some sort of health condition which caused her to lose control of her vehicle.

“The cause of the crash remains under investigation by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office,” Randy Gustafson, spokesman for the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office, said in a statement. “However, initial indications are [that] medical reasons appear to be contributing factors to the cause of the crash.”

Whatever the cause, the results of the accident are a bit scary, as evidenced by the following video:

As the bar owner, Tom Cossak said, “there should have been people killed,” especially considering how fast the truck was moving when it entered the bar. After watching that video, I would not want to be one of the folks pinned against the bar. It is a miracle that no one died.

Seven million YouTube viewers can’t be wrong, and most of them loved how Isaac Lamb, a Portland actor, proposed to his girlfriend, Amy Frankel, by getting about 60 of his friends and family to lip sync and dance to Bruno Mars’ song, Marry You. Lamb video taped the proposal and posted it on YouTube for the rest of the world to enjoy.

Lamb cleverly managed to place Amy in a position to watch and appreciate the proceedings from the rear door of a slow moving Honda, with video cameras recording both the event and Amy’s reaction to it all.

But enough talk, let’s watch:

Editor’s note: After this article was posted, the original vid was forced off of YouTube because of copyright issues, at least that is how YouTube characterizes it. The vid was replaced with one from a news agency, which supposedly has the copyright to the video–As if any of us really believe that a TV station organized and choreographed the dancers!

A Boeing 747 is caught on video virtually taking off by itself without any pilot or crew. The jumbo jet accomplished this seemingly impossible feat due to the strong 70 mph winds blasting away at the wings of the plane as it sits in a jet boneyard in Mojave, CA, awaiting shipment to the scrap heap.

The aircraft, which was stripped of its jets, has empty fuel tanks, and is without passengers or crew, is left so light that the Mojave winds are free to have their way with the 747. Only the nose of the aircraft leaves the ground, but it lifts a significant amount off the tarmac giving the appearance it is about to take off.

The next day the plane was found to have rotated about 45 degrees from its original position. The lack of engines left the craft significantly tail heavy, at least enough to allow the plane to totter backward and forward lifting the nose quite high into the air. Although the back wheels remained in place, the nose and fuselage of the plane move numerous times.

In the city of Xi’an, in northern China, a teenage girl was caught on camera falling into a sinkhole apparently because she was too busy talking on her cellphone and failed to pay attention to where she was walking.

The teen tumbled 20 feet to the bottom of the hole. Wang Wei, a Good Samaritan cab driver, witnessed the incident and, in an attempt to rescue the girl, climbed down into the hole to find her. Initially she was unresponsive, but after Wei shook her a bit she came to. The fire department finally was called in to rescue the duo.

Although the sinkhole was marked with warning cones, the small markers might easily be missed by passing pedestrians in a hurry.

The moral to this story is: Don’t depend upon the government to warn you of the sinkholes in life.

Our video today shows Jeb Corliss, one of the world’s best base jumpers, crashing into a ridge on January 16th on Table Mountain in South Africa as his jump goes horribly wrong.

The video is embedded so that it will begin at 1 minute and four seconds into the vid, which is the beginning of Corliss’ ill-fated jump. We recommend that you click on the full screen icon in the lower right corner of the vid to enable the best shot of the crash.

Because it is YouTube technology that allows us to pop into the video at a specific time slot, it may not work properly on all web browsers. If that happens, then simply paste the link into your browser’s URL address and watch it on YouTube.

And yes, Corliss surprisingly survived the mishap suffering only a broken leg, a broken ankle, some broken toes and bumps and bruises while spending the last five weeks in a South Africa hospital.

Corliss’ injuries are minor compared with what might have occurred. The fact that he survived at all is quite amazing considering that he hit the ridge at 120 miles per hour. Of course, Corliss fully intends to continue jumping once his injuries heal.

“The only reason I’m getting better is so that I can jump again,” Corliss said describing his motivation for healing his injuries. “That’s what I do. There’s absolutely nothing in this world that’s going to stop me from jumping.”

HBO Sports with Bryant Gumbel filmed the crash, and Corliss has posted his version of the accident at Jeb Corliss – Grounded. ABC News’ Nightline has also presented the best version of the accident I have seen on its show. I will post that link when it becomes available.